


Manifest that Love...

by mrs_leary (julie)



Category: Merlin (TV) RPF
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-10-04
Updated: 2011-10-04
Packaged: 2017-10-24 07:55:36
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,324
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/260904
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/julie/pseuds/mrs_leary
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Inspired by Bradley and Tony, Rupert finds himself manifesting his love for Colin.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Manifest that Love...

**Author's Note:**

> The title and quote is from the Sondheim musical _Company_. But really that’s just an excuse for some unabashed Mrs L fic, featuring… the all–singing all–dancing all–hot–all–the–time Rupert Young! { _mad Kermit arms_ } _Yaaay!!!_

♦

It was the mellow time of night, late and dark and easy. The four of them had a booth up the back of Ars Amandi, with Tony and Bradley sitting on the bench seat opposite Rupert and Colin. They were all mellowing down to a rather delicious flavour of mild. Tony in particular seemed as comfortable and smooth as a twelve–year–old malt scotch. He’d been sitting back at his ease, with his arm along the back of the seat; an unexpectedly peaceable Bradley had slowly, inevitably sunk down to lean against Tony, head fitting snugly against his shoulder, and when Tony’s arm slipped down to encompass him, Bradley took Tony’s hand in both of his and settled it spread against his stomach. The two of them looked so wonderfully relaxed with each other. Rupert found himself envying them a little, or maybe yearning a little, in a mellow kind of way. He glanced at Colin beside him, who seemed likewise relaxed, his conversation with Bradley still meandering on as if nothing at all was out of kilter, everything was even and expected and enjoyed. Rupert smiled, not really listening to the younger men’s murmurings; they’d known each other long enough to have their own shorthand, a shared set of references, which didn’t seek to exclude, but for a companion the meaning was lost in the lovely flow of it back and forth and through. Tony was smiling at them both genially. He was especially fond of Bradley, of course; they were like father and son, they even addressed each other as such, it was delightful. Which made Colin… a brother? A best friend? Rupert watched Colin for a while, his ease and clumsy grace, his supple shift as he shrugged, and then his delight as he laughed, the happiness infusing his whole body, the tremors of their shared humour reaching Rupert through the seat and welling up within him until a laugh bubbled out of him though he hardly knew what about. Colin slid down a little, lazily, but then swung around on the seat so that his back was against the wall, and his socked feet were there beside Rupert’s hand. It seemed all of a piece that Rupert should wrap that hand around Colin’s bony ankle, sharing his own warmth through the thin layer of cotton. Colin smiled at him, gentle, before turning towards Bradley again to make some inconsequential remark. They all slipped into quiet for a while, and Rupert considered his companion, while Colin’s eyes gradually lidded sensually as he watched the other two men. And he remained comfortable and accepting, but there was something warm in Colin’s body language, in how it was mirroring something sparking in Tony and Bradley’s, that meant the two of them weren’t father and son at all.

Rupert blinked, and the world shifted.

The world shifted slightly yet significantly on its axis, and Rupert grasped that ankle tight, not wanting to be dislodged. Perhaps Bradley realised that Rupert had at last twigged, or perhaps it was only that Rupert was seeing more clearly now, but it seemed that Bradley sank further into Tony’s embrace, which enfolded him closer, gathered him in – and Tony met Rupert’s questioning gaze, murmuring words that Rupert recognised all too well: ‘ _And sometimes… sometimes you just have to **manifest** that love._ ’

Rupert nodded. He could understand that, especially given the way Bradley stretched voluptuously softly strongly within Tony’s arms, pressing back against him, wriggling himself further into his embrace –

Until Bradley saw how closely Rupert was watching him, how much Rupert saw. Bradley turned bashful for a moment, and then a wary veil fell, and Bradley twisted around to whisper something in Tony’s ear.

‘Of course,’ Tony smoothly replied. ‘You’re ready now?’ When Bradley nodded, Tony looked for a steady moment at Colin, then at Rupert. ‘Gentlemen, Bradley and I are going to my club. Do you wish to join us?’

It was Bradley’s startled look that confirmed the matter, even before Tony urbanely remarked, ‘We’ll be quite private there.’

Which led to the question of why and what and who… Rupert found the courage to glance at Colin, who was looking back at him with languidly hooded eyes. Something stirred deep within Rupert’s gut, and he dared to murmur, ‘Yes…?’

Colin nodded once, decisively. ‘Yes.’

And Rupert found he’d flushed, he was in danger of foundering, so he looked hopelessly to Tony to lead them through, which of course Tony did with aplomb – none of which undercut the delicious feeling that twisted strong through him when Colin leaned in close and Colin’s hand wrapped for one possessive moment around Rupert’s thigh.

♦

Rupert had long ago decided that if a straight man were ever to make an exception, that would be Colin Morgan. At the time he’d assumed it a theoretical notion, never to be tested or proven. But perhaps it explained why this was so easy; why, as soon as the discreet factotum had withdrawn from the room he’d shown them to, locking the door behind him, why Rupert had fallen back into one corner of the sofa, lifting his arms to encourage Colin to follow him down; why his heart skipped to hear Colin’s happy laugh as he did so, why he could barely contain his grin enough to return Colin’s eager kiss.

At the other end of the sofa Tony was elegantly mirroring Rupert’s sprawl; while Bradley was curled up in Tony’s lap, his back to the other two and his face buried against Tony’s chest. But as Rupert and Colin began seriously making out, Tony’s comforting embrace seemed to have its desired effect, and Bradley unwound enough to let himself be kissed and caressed and petted back into his earlier sense of abandon. He kept his face hidden, though, or his eyes closed.

But it was easy enough to let the man be, when Rupert’s arms were full of long lithe Colin, and Colin shifting against him, and Colin kissing him with an intriguing blend of wonder and wryness. It seemed that Colin was hovering on the verge of laughter – and whether that laughter would be delighted or ironic, perhaps even Colin himself didn’t yet know.

Eventually… eventually… at last Bradley was too far gone to care that he and Tony had company. He was curled up heavily in Tony’s embrace, his face was flushed, and his breath was coming in quiet mewling pants. ‘Come on, then,’ Tony murmured, shifting forward, with his arms tightening around Bradley as if he would have loved to carry his young lover over to the enormous bed that waited there for them all. With a glance and a tilt of his head, Tony invited Rupert to bring Colin over as well.

But memory and conscience gave Rupert a moment’s pause. He stilled, and looked at Tony, and said very simply, ‘I love your Sarah, you know.’ For Tony’s partner was utterly adorable, the loveliest person, and he hated to think of anything that might cause her pain.

‘We all do,’ came a muffled reply from where Bradley’s head was tucked into Tony’s throat.

Tony smiled a little, wistfully, and he met Rupert’s gaze clearly, directly. ‘We all do,’ he confirmed. He pressed a kiss to Bradley’s hair, as if this were indeed part of who they were together, as if he were forever grateful to the young man. ‘She knows about us,’ Tony continued. ‘We have her blessing. She won’t ever know about tonight, Rupert – she doesn’t want details. But if she did know she wouldn’t blame you.’

After a moment, Rupert nodded, accepting this – and Colin smiled at him with gentle warmth – and then Tony and Bradley were walking over to the bed with their arms wrapped around each other, even as Colin stood and held out a hand to haul Rupert up and lead him over there, too.

Tony was undressing Bradley as they stood there together at the foot of the bed, while Bradley watched him with devotion – while Colin laughed brightly, and began discarding his own clothes, almost tearing them off, dropping them to the floor, and Rupert watched him with open–mouthed awe. What was revealed was so so different to what he was used to from his lovers, more lean than curvy, more taut than soft. There was hair instead of smoothness over Colin’s breastbone, and a stronger swell of muscle down his biceps, a greater hollow at his collarbones and of course that pronounced adam’s apple. A slender belly and narrower hips. Rupert was intrigued by the differences, though, and his own hands went to the buttons of his shirt while Colin’s hands made short work of the belt, button and zip of Rupert’s jeans.

But then Colin’s hands were pushing Rupert’s away, and Colin laughed, full of wicked delight – indicated their companions with a glance – and Rupert looked over to see that an utterly naked Bradley was lying back and welcoming a still–clothed Tony down into his arms, Bradley’s thighs opening to gather his lover between them. And as Rupert took in that astonishing sight, Colin gently shoved him back to fall onto the bed an arm’s length away from Bradley, and a naked Colin followed him down – Colin’s thighs wide to straddle Rupert’s hips and thighs just as promisingly as Bradley’s legs encompassed Tony’s waist – and Colin was continuing his momentum to fall onto all fours, to take his weight on his hands – while his mouth, his gorgeous mouth crashed into Rupert’s for a wild bruising kiss.

And soon… soon Bradley was lying there curled up under Tony, heavy with lust as if debilitated by the heat of it… Tony was pushing into him with a tireless generous rhythm. If afterwards Rupert held one remembered image of their coupling, he thought it must be Bradley’s flushed cheeks and parted lips, and Tony’s passionately relentless love, and how they gazed at each other thus without any barriers between them at all.

For himself, he would remember Colin’s unexpectedly sinuous hips grinding down and revolving around where Rupert himself was hard–pressed, held–hot, secretively tucked away in darkness. Colin’s head falling back as he groaned so gutturally that Rupert felt rather than heard it. Colin’s arms were stretched to either side like a tightrope walker, then rising as he arched back further, his long arms curving up beautifully like a dancer.

Rupert lifted up onto his elbows the better to watch his wanton lover – there was no other word for Colin in those moments – the familiar becoming exotic, the known becoming strange and so utterly divine, and then known again in the most intriguing ways. Even if this never happened again, even if they never shared so much as a wistful smile in remembrance of what they’d done together tonight, in these moments they were lovers, and Rupert lay there honouring Colin with eyes full of adoration, a heart full of warmth, and balls full of worshipful awe.

In the next moment, the world changed.

♦

Colin had begun leaning forward, curling forward again, perhaps about to push down for another kiss, perhaps about to launch the beginning of the end, and his gaze caught –

Bradley had dazedly looked over, still lost in his own surrendering feverish lust, perhaps wondering how it was for Colin, when they each approached the act and their lovers in such very different ways, and his gaze snagged –

 **‘Oh!’** Colin shouted out in sharp surprise.

 _‘Oh…’_ Bradley sighed.

Then their right hands each reached, and grasped each other’s forearms, and they held fast to each other. And it was done.

♦

They were nothing if not considerate, these two young men. They made sure their lovers were well satisfied in all transacted matters of the flesh. No one left that night with anything that had been agreed to left undone. Rupert indulged himself in feeling rather disconsolate, though, as he waited while Tony had discreet words with the factotum, no doubt ensuring Colin and Bradley would be left alone for as long as they needed, that they would be given anything they required, while they explored this newfound –

‘Love,’ said Tony as he appeared at Rupert’s side. ‘There’s no doing anything about it. Not when it manifests itself like that.’

Rupert uselessly scuffed a toe against the floor, and shoved his hands even deeper into his pockets.

‘We were only ever going to have a few moments in the sun, I’m afraid,’ Tony continued.

‘ _One_ moment,’ Rupert said, as begrudging now as he’d ever been in his life. ‘Some of us only had _one_ moment.’

‘Oh my poor man,’ Tony murmured with light sympathy. ‘You’re right, of course. I wouldn’t have been so philosophical if I’d been blessed only the once.’

They emerged into the cool early morning air. In the not too distant future, a new day would dawn. Despite himself, Rupert felt himself stirring with something future–looking. Maybe it wasn’t hope. Not quite yet. But it was something near.

Tony drew in a deep lungful of the fresh air. ‘Come along, I’ll give you a lift home. Or – anywhere you want to be, really.’

‘Thanks.’ They set off down the pavement, a spring in their steps as if they were each walking towards love and not away from it.

‘Is your heart broken?’ Tony asked, just before they reached his car. Rupert somehow got the distinct impression that they wouldn’t be talking about this again. This was their last exchange on the matter. But for this last moment the truth still prevailed.

‘No,’ Rupert eventually admitted. ‘No, but I think it wants to have been.’

‘Good man,’ said Tony. And he unlocked the door, and slid inside. The car purred quietly into life.

The world was waiting. Life and work and adventure and friendship and sex and love and – and the whole wide world was waiting. Rupert smiled to himself, and went exploring.

♦


End file.
